All posts tagged verizon

Verizon Rolls Out Android 2.2 to Droid Incredible

By Brian Kelley | 08.29.2010 | Android Phones | Comments Off

Verizon Wireless on Friday started to roll out Android 2.2, also known as “Froyo,” to HTC Droid Incredible phones.

The 93.7 MB update adds a ton of new features: it improves browser speed, adds Flash Player 10.1 to the browser, enables 720p high-definition video recording, turns on faster 802.11n Wi-Fi, and lets you use your phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot (for $20 extra per month), among other features.

The update makes the Incredible the fourth U.S. phone to get upgraded after the Google Nexus One, HTC EVO 4G for Sprint, and the Motorola Droid for Verizon Wireless. Verizon’s Motorola Droid X and Samsung’s Galaxy S phones, among others, are still waiting for Android 2.2 upgrades.

To download the update, go to Settings, About Phone, System Updates. The update may not appear to all users on Friday, because Verizon has a policy of pushing out updates to different groups of phones over several days’ time.

The Motorola Droid 2 Review

By Brian Kelley | 08.24.2010 | Android Phones | Comments Off

Motorola Droid 2 Overview

It may not be easy to discern the new Motorola Droid 2 from its first-generation sibling, the original Droid, but be assured that the latest Android device for Verizon Wireless has enough firepower lurking behind the scenes than one would surmise. First off, there’s more horsepower under the hood regarding processing and RAM. But the Motorola Droid 2 bursts out of the starting gates running Android 2.2 Froyo, meaning all aspects of interface performance have been improved. Along with the integration of Android’s latest interface, the Droid 2 boasts an improved battery life, which we tested, and improved internal storage memory. While we weren’t crazy about the Droid 2′s camera, this phone offered enough upgrades to take our original Droid experience to the next level.

Fragmentation in Android OS Market

By Brian Kelley | 12.12.2009 | Android Development, Android Phones | Comments Off

PC World has a perspective on the most recent Android update made available by Google and pushed to Motorola Droid owners. This could be one not-so-subtle issue that may keep software houses from focusing development efforts on the Android operating system platform and instead opt for the Apple iPhone platform.

On Friday, Sprint posted a Twitter message saying its HTC Hero and Samsung Moment phones will get Android 2.0 in the first half of 2010.

The Sprint announcement points to a potential fragmentation issue that some experts worry might plague Android. Already there are phones on the market running Android 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0. The problem with having many versions in the market at the same time is that applications may have trouble working smoothly across all the OSes.

That makes the platform less attractive to the developers Google relies on to build interesting applications, and to end-users who may find that an application they download doesn’t work on their phone.

PCW Article

Sen. Amy Klobuchar introduces bill after Verizon hikes early termination fees

By Brian Kelley | 12.04.2009 | Android Phones, General Technology | Comments Off

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar (D) introduced a bill to congress today that would restrict the amount cell phone carriers could charge for early termination fees when consumers choose to terminate their cell phone contracts early. Klobuchar’s bill would mandate that termination fees be pro-rated from the date of the contract start through the end of the contract.

“Changing your wireless provider shouldn’t break the bank,” Klobuchar said. “Forcing consumers to pay outrageous fees bearing little to no relation to the cost of their handset devices is anti-consumer and anti-competitive.”

Personally, I really like this senator. She has been on the front lines of consumer protection and her legislative efforts have been ramped up since the financial crisis that started in October 2008, pushing for a full and complete accounting of the unpopular TARP bill (troubled asset relief program). She’s a “populist” and that’s what I like about her. However, there’s a decent argument to be made for consumer choice and the intervention of government in the private sector. In the comments section of the article link below is an impassioned reader comment that presents a reasonable argument.

Paul Thurrott: AT&T laughed right out of court

By Brian Kelley | 12.03.2009 | Android Phones, General Technology | Comments Off

AT&T has had it’s “irreprable harm” lawsuit against Verizon dismissed from the Federal Circuit court in Atlanta, Georgia today.

The court did just that. And while that may seem like bad news for AT&T, the truth is, no one was ever fooled by the company’s legal grandstanding.

ATT Lawsuit

Paul’s Wininfo Home | Article

Supersite for Windows

Google now providing instructions for Droid “high quality” video flub

By Brian Kelley | 11.22.2009 | Android Phones | Comments Off

One puzzling nuance of the Verizon Droid from the day it was released to the public is the need to change settings in the native Youtube application to display high quality video as opposed to pixelated, low-quality versions of the same stream. In the eyes of several reviewers this appeared to be a bit of an odd oversight. Why would a phone, whose resolution is a crystal clear 854 x 480 pixels, be configured to show Youtube videos at the default 320 x 240 resolution when it’s reasonably easy to configure for the much sharper 640 x 360 high quality resolution?

Google now appears to be sending email messages to new Droid owners instructing them how to change the resolution of videos on the fly. It’s obvious that the point of the messge is to provide a handful of “How-To” video tutorials for other functionality on the phone, but the seemingly-subtle configuration change is what stands out like a sore thumb in the email.

The message:
Read more…

Were you an early adopter of Droid? ETF fees still $175

By Brian Kelley | 11.20.2009 | Android Phones | 1 Comment

Marquerite Reardon over at CNet has an interesting overview of the ins-and-outs of early termination fees and one interesting point is worth noting. If you were one of those who ran out and purchased a droid within the first week of the Verizon / Motorola Droid release, the early termination fees — should you decide to cancel your Verizon contract — are still $175 and not the $350 that Verizon has instituted now.

Read the article on CNet